Just A Test
by Modsan
Summary: Day by day people lives in a mundane world, leading their normal lives, and just to die in the end. But is that all there is to it? Of course, not. Reincarnation makes sure it isn't all over. Due to popular requests, there will be a new mode available called "Life " which will be added soon. Who am I? Well, I'm just a "lucky" tester for them to play around.
1. Chapter 1

Life is a funny thing, isn't it?

You could be a famous movie star or just a worthless beggar, maybe even King of a Dynasty but it doesn't matter in the end when you die.

That is what poor and unfortunate people console themselves with. "Even if you are more high and mighty than me, you would still die like us peasants" is what they say in their heart. But is that true?

Is death the end of everything? That's what I asked when I was shit faced drunk in the middle of the street at midnight.  
As you can see I am quite the philosopher. Alas as I was so curious that life granted me a free one-way ticket to death and told me to seek it for yourself.  
"Lucky" ain't I? But fortunately(or unfortunately) my journey didn't stop there.

Dying is a unique experience, I would say it a life-changing one. I would recommend 10 out of 10 to the readers to try "Dying". It will change your life. Anyways back to the story

I was surrounded by darkness and nothing more.  
I don't know how I died when I died or even if I died at all, just darkness. Being stuck in a dark void for god knows how long really gives you a lot of free time  
Time for anger, regret, sadness, and  
even a bit joyful. I thought about my family, my dad and how he would give me life advice. I would think about even meeting mom here, but I haven't seen anyone or anything so that's a no go. But a man can dream, can't he? Even then I still had more time. So I did what I could only do.

I pondered and thought.  
I questioned my decisions and my apparent death, was this a punishment for me?  
I would say I was never the goodie two shoes but that would be a lie. Under all that sarcasm and cynicism was a naive stupid kid that wanted to strive towards a better world but never had the chance to do so.

It could have been a century or it could have been an hour but the darkness finally "stopped" per say.  
What awaited me was a cold metallic voice saying to me that my application has passed, I would be a beta tester for the new DLC of "Life" if you would. After that, it said it was waiting for my answer.

And then I froze, my heart beat got quicker even though I didn't have a body. Thinking back it must have been a phantom limb or something.  
Countless thoughts flashed through my mind. But only one mattered to me right now.  
Is this real? if it was, I knew what it was, what it could be.  
It was the beginning of something new,  
something amazing, something bigger than me.  
To some, the earlier question may have been silly but I could be in a coma or in a Japanese styled comedy show for gods to alleviate border.  
Under all these stupid thoughts were, however, a feeling of...joy and excitement. There was a semblance of me, the rational side telling me that boring is safe, its comforting and you won't die again.  
It was true, I could just say no and go back to my void and spend the remaining time there to lose all my sense of self and finally rest. But that wouldn't make an interesting tale now, would it?  
As I said yes I could somehow feel myself losing consciousness. There was only one thought in my head that was still lingering until I fell into a deep sleep.  
When did I make an application for the DLC? 


	2. Chapter 2

As the night moved on in Konoha, a young couple was strolling along with their child. The couple both seemed content with just strolling in the night.

The guy seemed to be struggling to say something that's on his mind and after a few moments of hesitation, he finally speaks his mind.

"Honey... I'm sorry I wasn't there for you-"

"Shhh..., It's ok, I know you didn't have a choice, I know how a shinobis life is. Konoha needs my Taki more than anybody else"

The now named Takis body relaxed a bit before straining up.

"But its no excuse, what kind of husband doesn't be there when his wife gives birth-."

"Wife? I didn't know we were already married Taki.

Well, then where is my "ring" my dear "husband"?

She has a feline-like a smile as she looks at her fingers with faux confusion.

"N-n-no we're not married yet but it's not like that I don't want to be married but-" However as he stammers, a delicate hand reaches and closes his mouth.

"I know, I know, our finance at the time is a bit...underwhelming, to say the least"

"*Sigh*, I'm sorry, you aren't used to living like this Aida, and I'm just screwing everything up" Taki shakes his head in guilt.

However, she just smiles back at him and he goes quiet. After a few minutes

between them, Aida breaks the comfortable silence

"You know...I like this boring yet simple life. I'm deciding my own life and my choices matter and its...nice."

As she looks fondly to the moon above as Taki gently smiles at her.

"Aida, do you remember, just almost a year ago we were panicking about what to do. I still remember my decision that day"

"And?"

"My only thought was, would I regret ever this?"

"Well do you?"

"Yes"

"..."

"I regret not doing it earlier"

And he gently embraces his "wife".

"You scoundrel"

However, this loving scene doesn't last long because a great evil is upon them. The Kyuubi.

Both of them freeze up, fear evident upon their faces. The baby starts crying loudly and the couple breaks out of the trance drenched in cold sweat.

"W-what is that" The now understandably fearful Taki asks his wife.

"I don't know, but we gotta get out of here right now."

Aida quickly comes to her senses and goes for a dash while hugging her baby. She is remarkably fast as if she was trained to be a kunoichi.

Taki quickly follows behind them, giving his all to catch up.

However, as they run, the giant beast behind them is wreaking havoc on the village.

After running for a while Aida comes to a sudden stop. Taki finally catches up to her.

"Why did you stop? We gotta get out of here"

"No..., you gotta get out of here with Hiro. I gotta stop that thing."

"What! Are you crazy? You may have been strong but even the Hokage isn't a match for that...monster. Not to mention you're still weak"

Aida looks mournfully to her husband.

"I can't just sit here, not while that monster is killing civilians, they need me more than ever right now."

"AND WHAT! AT THE COST OF YOUR OWN LIFE? Stop being stupid and let's get out of here. They never helped you, why should you risk your life for them?"

Tears stream down towards her face, as she clutches the baby in her arms more tightly.

"They're family...you wouldn't understand Taki. I promise I will come back, just take care of Hiro for me ok?"

"NO! I will-"

"Please! I have to go, it's my duty, I ran away from my responsibility just to be with you. Time caught up, and it's my turn now. Goodbye Taki and goodbye Hiro"

With a little peck on her son's face, Aida places him on the ground and says goodbye, and she disappears a swirl of leaves. With a yell, Taki tries to stop her but alas he was too late.

As if knowing her mother was gone, Hiro starts crying more and more. Taki quickly goes over and cradles him as he ran.

"It's ok, mommy will be back, she promised she will be back"

However, as Taki tried to choke back his tears, he knew that Aida wouldn't come back. She knew that too but she lied to herself. And that was the last time anyone has ever seen of Aida.

Months later Hiro ends up in an orphanage, not knowing his own mother's sacrifice and his destiny.

A week later.

In the Konoha orphanage, a group of babies was sleeping next to each other. After the big disaster known as the demon Kyuubi, the orphanage got whole many more residents. In translation, a bunch of kids got no more parents anymore. However, in the middle of the sleeping orphans was our now ex-dead guy now known as Hiro here. After a few months, he got back some of his memories and was currently contemplating his new life now.

'Well fuck, what do I do now? I'm in the Naruto world, what do I fucking do!'

'Damn it, I did not sign up for this bullshit.

Well, I might have because I didn't even read the god damn contract!.

Ok, ok cool down. Just be more chill and you will figure a way out.'

However, to his utter surprise, his emotions got blocked. No no, not just his emotions, he could "feel" that he is somehow more logical and a bit more...blank. Somehow distant would be the right word.

If an outsider saw this scene, they would have thought it was right in there with a horror movie scene. A baby in bed in the middle of the night had the coldest and somehow blank face a human could have.

'What is this, I can somehow "feel" that something just changed, like some sort of limiter was released. You know what? I'm not even gonna question this one right now. I'm going to accept it.'

If the hypothetical people who saw the previous scene were still here, they would have run out by now.

The "baby" was now doing various expressions, sometimes it would look happy, other times sad. Even if babies had somewhat limited facial expressions it looked kind of natural. Well if it weren't that the baby kept scrolling through emotions and expressions in the blink of an eye.

'Man is this weird, it's like I'm there but not at the same time.

Hmmm... I guess like a video game avatar would be a good analogy to use.

The baby now thankfully stopped and went back to the blank and apathetic state.

"Anyway, so I need to make a list, thank god I'm not freaking out right now. Its as if everything is blocked, it's kinda creepy actually but this might end up helping me in the long run.

Ok, so my first order of business is to " GODDAMN SURVIVE". This is the Naruto world, this ain't Kansas so I have to be careful and paranoid as they come.

On the plus side, I think I could get some pretty sweet deals on superpowered shenanigans. Even if I ignore the bloodlines, there are plenty of ways to get strong or aka survive.

Though I have to be super lowkey and careful. Hmmm... who could threaten my newfound life now? Well, it's pretty much everyone over the age of 13 now but who should I look out for exactly right now?

Orochimaru is definitely on there, considering his weird and strange experiments, I bet he would like a reincarnation story. Uhh, oh I remember now, there is Danzo now that I think about it. He abducts children from orphanages and trains them for Root... wait a minute, that also reminds me of something too. Orochimaru also got some of his experiments from the orphanage and lo and behold I'm in that "orphanage"...

Well fuck me, I already got my hands full.

Ok ok moving past these two, in the future, the major villains are uhh let me think.

Zabuza/Haku, Gaara, Itachi, Akatsuki, Pain, Madara, That one guy who has snake cells that can use the resurrection jutsu...what was his name again uhh oh right, it was Kabuto?

Which leaves I think Obito/Tobi and the final Boss, Kaguya.

Now that I think about it these guys aren't too bad except maybe like Pain when he pretty much nuked the whole place.

The big bad boss Kaguya is a problem though, considering that Black Zetsu is trying to revive her by doing century maybe millennia spanning plots and schemes... which he does in the background by spying on people.

Ah fuck, now I have to be careful from him too. How do I even know he's there?

...

...

I don't... so I just have to be more careful in the future as to not let anything slip.

Man, I have to be paranoid, why can't I have my power fantasy dream harem as I blitz through the bosses with my Rinnegan or something.

The baby breaks his inner monologue with a sigh, which looks somewhat cute if you ignore his blank expression.

So what I have to do first is to be super lowkey and unassuming and just be a good boy in general, after which I can-

And so on the tiny infant tries to defy fate given to this body by changing his destiny with one step at a time.


	3. Chapter 3

3 months later.

We now see a slightly bigger baby playing with other kids. He has a block in his hand as he tries to make words out of it. The baby is also trying to look happy and cheerful, but it only scared his playmates as it wasn't natural.

Man I thankful for Zen Mode otherwise I'm pretty sure I would have just been a mess, I wonder if there are any side effects though…

Ah, so there are some good news and bad news. The good news is that I think I can turn off my now dubbed " Zen" mode, which has some nifty perks like calming me and making my thoughts clearer. The bad news is that when I tried to turn it off something inside me screamed not to...totally not sketchy at all.

Moving on, it seems like that dying left its perks too. I never noticed it but everything around me is in English for some reason. I have no idea why though, maybe I'll look into it later.

So anyway anyway thanks to that, I can essentially act my way through my life, how you ask?

Well, it's kinda like a controlling a game character in a sense, I don't feel much of anything from outside stimuli like pain and hunger but that also goes for emotions too.

It's really strange too and I hope it wouldn't come back to haunt me in the future.

And it's kind of difficult to maintain for long though, it starts to take a strain on me which affects my outward expression.

The baby tries another expression leaving the kids even more terrified and even making one of them cry. However, the baby was still deep in thought as it didn't notice anything.

Anyway, after that I figured out it's a Naruto world, my goal right now has been trying to sense chakra, which is not going well at all.

But I did sense something the other day so I might be on to something, oh and also another "Zen" perk is that I can like meditate quickly now, which helps me a lot if chakra sensing is anything I think it is.

Though not gonna lie, I don't have much going on for me.

I'm pretty much useless right now and in the future. I can't train in fear of getting snatched by somebody and if I don't train I'm pretty sure it would be a quick life here.

"WAAH WAAHH WAAH"

God damn it, aren't there usually something like a cheat or a system to help me? I didn't sign up for this.

Well at least everyone speaks English.

So right now I have to train in my chakra a little to get a little sense of it.

And another thing is that I have to stand or just be memorable but be average. Which is a bit of an oxymoron itself but that's my only option.

I can't share my future knowledge though, no matter how much I want to. The canon has to be preserved even If I'm here now.

Besides, I have this sense that everything is...fated I guess. Like that even if I make a tiny ripple in the ocean, it wouldn't matter because of how gigantic it is.

I have no idea where this is coming from though, but giving out canon knowledge is just going to be the end of me unless I grow sufficiently strong enough to protect myself.

Knowledge is power and boy do I have it.

So my "cheats" or advantages are that I have

-Future knowledge or just knowledge in general

-Memories from my past life

-Zen mode

-This sixth sense of like destiny?

"Ah what happened here, oh there there" The caretaker comes and consoles the baby who was crying to high heaven. "What happened little guy?"

Not looking good but not too shabby either. I just have to use my cards well if I wanna make it somewhere.

So I have to continue "training" my charka in hopes that no one notices and just be average. I can totally do that... at least I hope.

Anyway, what's happeni-eh

"Ah Hiro, stop scaring the other kids, play nice okay?" The caretaker says as she lifts me up.

'Man I hate being tiny'

Two Yeara Later

Woooo boy, how quickly time passes...not

Like Jesus, why is it so slow. Is it because I'm a baby again? Or is the training.

Yeah, probably combination of those two but still, it's mind-boggling how slow everything is.

Speaking of mindboggling, I figured out that kids mature faster here, like way faster than on Earth. They're already running around now and they're like 2 or 3.

And by running I don't mean in like a wobbly fast walking no no no, I mean like a full-blown sprint.

Maybe my knowledge of babies is wrong but whatever.

The good news is I have chakra now, well I can sense it and kind of use it but it still counts. One small step for me and one leap for future me.

You are probably wondering what's happening outside right now, well let's see, shall we.

"You're weird, c'mon guys lets go somewhere else"

"Yeah, let's play shinobi. I pick good shinobi!"

"Hey no fair, I'm good shinobi"

A group of kids is shunning a single boy as they run off somewhere else. The lonely child goes back to playing alone.

'Now you may be thinking 'Hey what happened to being normal and likable?' to that I answer that kid isn't me. I was actually the one who said let's go play shinobi.'

That kid was the titular character, drumroll, please...Naruto.

Yeah, it's shocking I know, The golden boy came here half a month ago.

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. I thought he was being raised by the ANBU or Hiruzen but he came here now. He's probably like 2 or 3 now and even now I can see the prejudice people have against him.

"Ha catch me if you can, I'm the fastest shinobi in Konoha"

"No fair Hiro, you're too fast"

I saw it in how people look at him, with hatred or cold indifference, sure the staff here try to be fair and treat him like everyone else but they still had that look in their eye even if they tried to hid it.

Sometimes there wouldn't be enough meals or certain someone's clothes had some wear and tear in them that should be easy to fix.

I mean there wasn't anything physical like beating but all the little things like habits like how they would scowl a little when they look at him or how their voice would be just a little higher when they scolded him.

Anything adults themselves wouldn't notice but the little cretins would. So that's how Naruto got left out of playtime. It was surprisingly fast on how they did it, guess that's life.

As for me, I integrated seamlessly into this little society, the perfect sidekick not the one who would lead others but the one who's always in the background. Silently guiding the kids around me in a subtle way.

That sounds way cooler in my head but all I do is make a suggestion to someone and let them say it. Thanks to that, when people think of athletic and strong kids with leadership qualities, I would be around the 4th or 5th in their minds.

I noticed that some kids would silently disappear without a trace, the staff would say they got adopted but I feared the worse. That becomes a motivation that kept me going. It's hard to imagine the threat of Pain and Kaguya when it feels so unreal, but the kids silently going missing is real and closer than I would like it to be.

"Hah- hah- you're fast Hiro, but I'm still faster than you -hah-"

" Hah- hah- C'mon Katsuki, hah- I'm almost faster than you - hah- now"

So I've been training myself in secret, trying to get kids around me to play more things that would need physical extortion like running and jumping.

My chakra training is going nicely too, I would meditate in silence at night and pretend I'm sleeping. Though I have been more careful since Naruto came here because Naruto means Kurama and that means the ANBU and Hiruzen's surveillance. Unless they have a Sharingan user or a Byakugan user, which I doubt, I should be fine.

"What do you guys wanna do now?"

"I'm gonna go climb trees, the one who climbs the highest gets to be the strongest shinobi!"

"Hey no fair Hiro, you're already there"

"Losers weepers hahaha"

The last thing I want to mention is that acting like a kid is tiring, acting like a hyperactive kid even more so. But I have to do all I can now to survive.

And speaking of surviving, I have a little experiment I'm going to do tonight. Something hopefully I can do now.

"Come down now boys, it's lunchtime"

"Luuunch"

"Its lunch already?"

"The last one there is a rotten egg!"

"No fair"

Like I said, extremely tiring.

"Ok here I go"

I say out loud to myself In the bathroom after dinner. Normally it's nothing too scary but somehow everything now looks a bit more spooky considering what I'm about to do. My whole body is screaming out saying no but I have to do this.

Breath in. Breath out. You can do this.

Zen mode. OFF

Painpainapaindarknesssufferingpainpainabysscoldcoldcoldabyssdarknesspain-AHHHHHHHHFUCKpaindarknkessssassufferingabyssssabsyssmakeitstopmakeitsto-

Zen mode. ON

After wheezing and gasping for a minute or so, my body returns to normal. Blood is dripping down my forehead, reminding me of what just happened. I can still see my face writhen in agony in the now broken mirror. Turning off Zen mode is a bad idea, I can still feel the phantom pain and agony from the realization that I'm dead now.

I can never see my parents again, any of my friends, my old life is gone. That I'm now in a global race to stay alive as everyone out there is going to kill me or torture me for information.

…

…

I guess I never realizatio-no I knew it and I was just putting it off. It's easier to pretend it's not my problem when I'm looking at it from an outsider's perspective. It gave me that safe space and I knew that deep down something like this would happen If I pushed that space.

"Guess that's another thing on the list, face my mortality hah"

My vision is dyed in a red tint, guess that blow really hit me.

I can see my blank face in the broken mirror with blood still dripping. I sigh and think of cleaning this mess. Hmm, what's that in my eye-

And there, my body frozen like a deer caught in a headlight, my mind still computing everything, to see if it's actually real.

At that moment, I knew what to do, what I can do. This was my big break.

I wanted to laugh out loud and scream in delight but I knew after my little "incident" people were getting curious. So I could only afford a voiceless chuckle.

The reason why?

Well staring at me was a blood-red eye with a two tomoe and a crazy smile.

Then I blacked out.


End file.
